Petition to Declare Standing Rock a National Monument to Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline

It is your duty as President of the United States to protect your people. You must protect the safety of Native Americans and their supporters who have gathered peacefully to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline.

We stand up for the sovereign rights of Indigenous people to land. The Dakota Access Pipeline threatens to damage land held sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux and other Indigenous nations.

We stand against violence and repression. Indigenous people have been facing cruel treatment from the United States Government and its leaders for centuries. It hasn’t stopped. The National guard, North Dakota state troopers, and private security firms have meted out harsh treatment on protesters of the pipeline utilizing attack dogs, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and strip searches in their attempt to break the people’s opposition. Such treatment has been labeled as ‘inhuman and degrading’ by a report issued by the United Nations.

We demand protection of our environment on which we rely on for life. The DAPL symbolizes our tendency to value crude corporate greed over environmental sustainability. Damage to the environment is felt globally. Water shortages, extreme weather, and temperature rises are problems we are all currently facing, and the devastation will continue to increase. The DAPL will release more carbon into the air, and risks endangering a source of fresh water for the Standing Rock Sioux and 8 million people living downstream.